[meteorite-list] Thuathe report from the field.

From: M come Meteorite Meteorites <mcomemeteorite2000_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:18:31 2004
Message-ID: <20030226184111.42868.qmail_at_web10306.mail.yahoo.com>

Hello

Ok for the report, is available a complete individual
of 10 gr.? I have ask in my last email but I never
received answer.
Regards

Matteo

--- Mike Farmer <farmerm_at_concentric.net> wrote:
> Hello everyone. Eric and I are back in South Africa,
> safe and sound, exhausted, but happy.
> I want to explain a little about this meteorite in
> response to Matteo and Joel Warren's emails.
> First for Matteo. Yes, the photos of the material
> that
> you saw in the Hupe's photos looks a little bit
> weathered. I saw
> all of the material first hand in Tucson so I know
> exactly what it looks like. The meteorite fell in
> Lesotho, (get a map Matteo), many thousands of
> kilometers from North Africa, a little far for
> nomads
> to try and pull a scam I would think? Anyway, this
> is
> a very mountainous region, and this year was
> apparently a record rainfall year. The area where
> the
> meteorite fell is partly on a high plateau, and
> partly
> in a valley. The strewnfield is almost 5 miles long
> by
> 2 miles wide. Several small villages and a satellite
> tracking station are in the middle of it. The area
> is
> full of small ponds and farmland, cabbage and
> cornfields. The stones are still being found, but it
> is high summer here, allot of rain and irrigation
> for
> the fields, so many stones are now weathered just as
> would be expected. The meteorite was seen and heard
> to fall by thousands of people all over the entire
> country of Lesotho and part of South Africa. The day
> was 80% clouded so it was only broken visibility of
> the fireball and smoke trail. Due to this, the
> university took almost 3 weeks to find the actual
> strewnfield. This happened when the local police
> report came out, once per month. In it there was
> report that some villagers reported to the police
> that
> someone had thrown stones from the sky at them. The
> police of course had no idea whom to charge, so they
> just reported it.
> When the scientists at the university saw that, they
> immediately went to the villages and began
> recovering
> the meteorites and mapping the strewnfield. This was
> late August, almost one month after the fall.
> These small villages are tiny, only a few houses,
> the
> people there have no time to waste on stones, so
> they
> soon forgot about the event until the university
> people came to collect and buy the stones. Then of
> course, everyone was out finding as many as they
> could.
> Eric and I spent an entire day at the university
> discussing the fall with them, pouring over maps and
> papers, and viewing the collection log of stones
> recovered. They have listed 490 stones, completely
> catalogued as to where recovered, by whom, size,
> dimensions etc. Extremely thorough data collection.
> We have logged in the stones we recovered and
> submitted that data to the university in order to
> keep
> the data as complete as possible. We also got some
> of
> the meteorites that the university collected along
> with all data about them.
> This fall will be one of the best with complete
> strewnfield mapping, logs for many stones, and
> written
> reports. So Matteo and Joel, I would NOT consider
> these
> people to be uneducated third world idiots.
> By the way, the meteorite is pronounced
> (too-wa-tea),
> and Lesotho is pronounced (less-ooo-too).
> Eric and I have many stones, almost all are
> absolutely gorgeous. Black and no weathering. Many
> have been held back by the people, because
> unfortunately, the local people buying before us
> were paying
> 10 rand and 20 rand for the larger stones. This is
> about $1.25 for stones of several hundred grams!
> When
> we arrived, we found helpful locals and they told us
> to pay well or we would see no stones. When we
> offered
> the money, people gasped at the amount we offered,
> it
> was many months wages per stone, some enough to
> build
> entire houses. So by paying well, we got stones that
> had been held back by the people for months. Almost
> nothing Eric and I have shows much weathering at
> all.
> There are almost no large stones in this fall over
> 500
> grams. Most are in the 20 to 50 gram range. Very few
> oriented stones, but a couple.
> The area has been well hunted, not many stones left
> to
> find out there. I have calculated along with the
> scientists and found that the approximate recovered
> weight is now about 33 to 36 kilograms. Undoubtedly
> a
> few more kilos is on the very rough terrain to be
> found, but not much more than a few kilos.
> This meteorite is Lesotho's first meteorite, and a
> witnessed fall, so it is a great day for that small
> beautiful country and for meteorite collectors.
> The name Thuathe should be accepted, as it is the
> major landmark for the strewnfield (the plateau) and
> the villages are tiny.
> Count your pennies and get ready to see some
> beautiful
> stones when we get home this weekend.
> There isn't that much to go around, so this fall
> will
> disappear rapidly from the market.
> I will of course, be reporting more about our
> adventure later and have taken many photographs.
>
> Michael Farmer
> Eric Olson,
> Meteorite Hunters
>
>


=====
M come Meteorite - Matteo Chinellato
Via Triestina 126/A - 30030 - TESSERA, VENEZIA, ITALY
Email: mcomemeteorite2000_at_yahoo.it
Sale Site: http://www.mcomemeteorite.com Collection Site: http://www.mcomemeteorite.info
International Meteorite Collectors Association #2140
MSN Messanger: spacerocks_at_hotmail.com
EBAY.COM:http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/mcomemeteorite_at_excite.it/

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more
http://taxes.yahoo.com/
Received on Wed 26 Feb 2003 01:41:11 PM PST